Saturday, October 17, 2009

President Barack Obama has a vision of a unified America, breaking down barriers, and helping the middle class, preserving the environment, and ending war and conflict. He has time and time again included LGBT Americans in his speeches and says we are more than our divisions and categories, we all are Americans.

The vision is undoubtedly beautiful, and inspired millions to goto the polls to elect this inspirational leader with a hopeful message. However, eight months into the administration gay rights activists are angered with the little action that has been taken thus far. There are those who demand full federal equality and believe in continuing to put pressure on the administration. Others within the LGBT community believe in incrementalism, and feel the President is doing everything in his power to speed up queer legislation and that through the process of checks and balances we must give him time and support.

Does Obama's vision really include LGBT people, beyond words and speeches? Do you believe in keeping up the pressure, or in the incremental approach, or some moderate position in between?

8 comments:

I do feel Obama is making more progress with LGBT rights than presidents of the past; but I think the key element to remember is time. Obama is still a fairly new president, and truth being told when he entered office he had plenty on his plate. I am not saying it is fair that the LGBT community wait for equal rights, but so far he has proven that is exactly what we'll continue to do.Although I will say that he has made a promise to abolish "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and I can only hope he keeps his word.

I support the idea of an egalitarian society, but I don't feel Obama will take us there (as in everyone) even if he is a 2 term leader in the US. Our society is a "rank and file" structure and LGBT as an identity falls at the bottom of the paradigm. As a communal identity, sexual/gender minorities (LGBT and other wise) will have to make a greater effort to work together and empower one another (such as the black community or POC's have done.) I think it's actually our diverse nature as sexual/gender minorities at divides us, in that the privileges we have via our other identities (such as being white, male...) become more important to maintain for survival than using those identities to empower a movement for sexual/gender minorities. We have to become an egalitarian community ourselves (as LGBTQIA people..) before we can have equality/equity in broader society.

Clearly we are at the VERY BOTTOM of his "to do " list. Considering that he probably won't get past the top 20% (and won't necessarily be successful with all of those issues) the ultimate answer, as so simply stated by a prior poster, is "No."

I do believe him~~I've never before seen a President reach out to us as Mr. Obama has.Remember, he's the President, not the dictator.His power isn't absolute~~like his health care agenda, his LGBT agenda gets a lot of opposition.